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As if designing the first privately-developed, liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit and the fastest all-electric supercar on the planet wasn't enough, Elon Musk is now about to enter politics. President-elect Donald Trump has offered him the job of co-leader of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, a post the mercurial multibillionaire will take up in the new year. Musk is the wealthiest person in the world. His equally rich private life, though, is often overlooked. But how does this colorful but controversial character separate business from pleasure, and how has family life defined him?
Click through and go beyond SpaceX and Tesla to find out who Elon Musk really is.
The decision by President-elect Donald Trump to appoint Elon Musk to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (along with Vivek Ramaswamy) marks the latest chapter in the extraordinary story of the world's richest person.
Musk donated more than US$100 million of his personal money to Trump's campaign and has secured a top post in the new administration after doing so.
It remains to be seen just how involved Musk will be in the role. According to Routine Club, Musk regularly works 80- to 100-hour workweeks. His investment portfolio includes SpaceX and Tesla, and he also owns X Corp., the company that operates the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). He's a very busy man.
Musk became a multimillionaire in his late twenties. As of November 2024, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$304 billion. Such prosperity is inconceivable to most of us. But Elon Musk's journey to wealth has involved an equally rich personal life.
Elon Reeve Musk was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. As a youngster, he was fascinated with inventions and developed an interest in computers. By age 10, Musk had taught himself how to program.
Elon Musk's father is Errol Musk, a retired wealthy South African engineer, politician, and businessman.
Musk's mother, Maye Musk, is a model and dietician. She's been modeling for 50 years. At age 69, she became the oldest woman to star in a CoverGirl campaign.
Kimbal Musk is Elon's younger brother. A businessman and restaurateur, Kimbal Musk has co-founded and invested in companies across technology, hospitality, entertainment, and agricultural industries. He currently sits on the boards of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX.
Tosca Musk is the younger sister of Elon and Kimbal Musk. A filmmaker, she's the founder of Netflix-style streaming service Passionflix.
Musk's parents divorced in 1979. At age 18, he emigrated to Canada, acquiring citizenship through his Canadian-born mother. In 1992, Musk left Canada for the United States to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating, Musk relocated to California. With his brother Kimbal, he co-founded the online city guide software company Zip2. The start-up was acquired by Compaq for US$307 million in 1999. Soon afterwards, Musk co-founded X.com, a direct bank. X.com merged with Confinity in 2000 to form PayPal.
Musk became a US citizen in 2002, the same year eBay acquired PayPal for US$1.5 billion. In 2002, Elon Musk founded SpaceX.
While studying in Canada, Musk had met Canadian author Justine Wilson. They married in 2000. Their first child died of sudden infant death syndrome. Subsequent in vitro fertilization produced twins in 2004, followed by triplets in 2006. The couple divorced in 2008.
That same year, 2008, Musk began dating English actress Talulah Riley. They married in 2010, but in 2012 legally ended the union. In 2013, however, the couple remarried. In 2016 they parted company again, this time for good.
Musk and Riley lived together with Musk's five children from his first marriage. The couple are pictured here in 2010 with his twins. In 2022, at age 18, Vivian Jenna Wilson, who was called Xavier at birth, filed to legally change her name and gender, seeking recognition of her gender as female. Vivian today is estranged from her father.
Musk's fling with actress Amber Heard over several months in 2017 revved the Hollywood rumor mill into overdrive. But it was a short-lived affair.
The following year, Musk and Canadian musician Grimes announced that they were an item. In 2020, Grimes gave birth to their son, X Æ A-Xii. The couple went on to have two more children despite their on-again, off-again relationship.
During his relationship to Grimes, Musk is reported to have had twins via IVF with Shivon Zilis, director of operations and special projects at Neuralink in 2021. This is according to a July 2022 edition of The Insider. Their third child together was born in early 2024 via surrogacy.
Musk's personal life was again under the spotlight in 2022 when The Wall Street Journal reported that the mercurial multibillionaire allegedly had an affair with Nicole Shanahan, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin (pictured) in 2021, a liaison that led to their divorce the following year. Musk rejected the allegations.
Australian actress Natasha Bassett was in an on-again, off-again relationship with Musk throughout 2022. According to Hollywood Life, the couple split up after news broke of Musk and his two new children born in November of the previous year while he was with Shivon Zilis.
In all, Elon Musk has at least 12 children with three women. He is rarely seen in public with any of them, though X Æ A-Xii, his firstborn with Grimes, has made several appearances with his dad, for example during a visit to the Tesla Gigafactory electric car plant on March 13, 2024, near Grünheide, Germany.
His complicated private life notwithstanding, Musk's contribution to space exploration and the automotive industry is undeniable. His various business ventures have been highly influential within their separate industries, so much so that he's the recipient of numerous awards and honors. For example, he was recognized for his design of the Falcon 1 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics George M. Low Award.
The Global Green 2006 product design award was presented to Musk for his design of the Tesla Roadster, as was the 2007 Index Design Award for the same vehicle.
Musk was awarded the National Space Society's Von Braun Trophy in 2008/2009 for leadership of "the most significant achievement in space."
In 2010, the world governing body for aerospace records, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, presented Musk with the highest award in air and space, the FAI Gold Space Medal. Previous recipients include Neil Armstrong and John Glenn.
And Musk has been listed among the Time 100 Most Influential People in the World no less than four times—in 2010, 2013, 2018, and 2021.
Despite his groundbreaking achievements, Elon Musk has at times been mired in controversy. His acquisition in 2022 of Twitter, for example, saw him rebrand one of the world's largest social media platforms as X. Lately, Musk has generated negative debate for his alleged use of X to promote Donald Trump's most recent presidential campaign.
Musk has also been berated for questioning online the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, criticizing public transportation and labor unions, and, according to The New Yorker, apparently expressing support for Vladimir Putin after initially championing the Ukrainian cause.
Presently, Elon Musk will co-lead the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency with multimillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy.
Following the announcement of his appointment, Trump-Vance spokesperson Anna Kelly said: "Elon Musk is a genius, an innovator, and has literally made history by building creative, modern, and efficient systems. [He] has dedicated himself to America's future by offering to serve with President Trump to ensure our government works more efficiently and uses America's taxpayer dollars effectively." But, adds NBC News, "There has been intense speculation about the long-term viability of the relationship, given the ambitions and personalities of the two men, with many people on social media predicting an eventual falling-out."
Sources: (Forbes) (The New York Times) (Parade) (Page Six) (Vanity Fair) (The New Yorker) (NBC News)
See also: Donald Trump—the controversial career of the next American president
The vision, values, and ventures of Elon Musk
Unmasking the richest man in the world
LIFESTYLE Profile
As if designing the first privately-developed, liquid-fuel rocket to reach orbit and the fastest all-electric supercar on the planet wasn't enough, Elon Musk is now about to enter politics. President-elect Donald Trump has offered him the job of co-leader of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, a post the mercurial multibillionaire will take up in the new year. Musk is the wealthiest person in the world. His equally rich private life, though, is often overlooked. But how does this colorful but controversial character separate business from pleasure, and how has family life defined him?
Click through and go beyond SpaceX and Tesla to find out who Elon Musk really is.